Athletic shoes suitable for basketball and other similar sports are well known and typically include a leather or vinyl plastic high top shoe upper for overlaying the dorsum of the foot and which extends upwardly therefrom to surround the ankle and provide support therefor. Because play in basketball and other vigorous sports involves a substantial amount of running and jumping, such ankle support is essential to guard against injury. Present athletic shoes have failed, however, in some instances to provide adequate support and have allowed the ankle to flex excessively during movement. Running related injuries not only to the ankle, but often to the knee and hip, have thus occurred. While previously developed devices have attempted to provide ankle support in an athletic shoe, such prior devices have often been cumbersome and difficult to put on, or take off.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of prior athletic shoes by providing a sports shoe which adequately supports the ankle and thereby eliminates or at least reduces the incidents of running related injuries, but yet which is easily worn and undone.